This is a good debut novel which spans 500 years and follows the lives of three women at different time periods from the same family who all have a gift of connecting to nature and wildlife. I liked the different POVs from the three main characters who are all going through very similar issues and there was so much depth to each of the stories that intrigued me. Overall I did find it a little slow in some parts but it is a deep read perfect for fans of historical fiction.

I love books that focus around women. The characters felt realistic. making realistic choices, saying realistic things, having appropriate reactions which made is so easy to connect to the characters and enjoy reading about them and getting to know them. The way they were all so connected and the stories had parallels despite being years apart was amazing.

Would you believe this is a debut novel? I definitely would not believe it if I didn't know. It is a beautifully crafted story, the writing is incredible and the depth of the writing is almost unmatched in a debut. The author is a real talent.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was well written and well drawn characters. I really enjoyed the parallels through time. Would highly recommend

A debut book that everyone should read. One that will make you think, weep, and feel stronger just by reading it.

A spellbinding blend of magical realism and historical fiction that has the strength of women right at it's core. The three women, Kate, Violet and Altha, go through the most horrific lows over the span of five centuries, a family cursed by female tragedy.

You feel as though you know the women throughout, they all feel like people you know, people you love and want to protect. It makes you feel uncomfortable and frightened but you're rooting for the characters when you witness them getting stronger after horrendous circumstances. A true female experience on page.

This was a heavy read but almost a necessary one. Content warnings are needed for this novel, so be mindful.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 4*
Writing skill : 5*
Plot: 4*
Characters: 4*
Pace:4*
Guessability: 3*

This was a book I went into with seriously high expectations and I wasn't disappointed. The imagery was the absolute standout highlight for me, her writing was incredible. Each of the 3 different narrators were transported to their era with such ease. The difference in the writing style and wording was subtle but definitely noticeable. All three characters were unique and likeable and added to the story in their own ways, and Graham was the standout co-star of the whole book.
The only reason for the 4 stars and not 5 was I knew exactly where things were headed at the end and I wasnt surprised at any point. But as I say I had a thoroughly enjoyable time and will be recommending this to lots of different readers, Thriller, HF and mystery fans alike.

I love it when a book is sophisticated and delicate inside and out. Look at this beautiful cover - you can expect a similarly enchanting and fabulous story. Three stories to be exact.

This book is the embodiment of strong female characters, and to be honest I missed at least one somewhat likeable man in the whole book to counterbalance them. As if the real companion, partner and love to the Weyward women were nature, birds, insects and flowers, instead of men.

The middle timeline, Violet's narrative, was my favourite, and I was always looking forward to her chapters. I enjoyed reading about Altha and Kate too, their story was a bit predictable to me though.

Unbelievable, that it's a debut novel. And a great one for that matter.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for an Advance Review Copy.

This did not feel like a debut, in the best way.
The writing had me gripped from beginning to end.
This isn't a story heavy in magic. But instead a sort of coming of age of three different woman across different generations. As they find their strength through "magic"

Each of the storylines are as compelling as the woman they focus on. Sometimes multi POV and timeline can have a weak link but not here.
While there are heartbreaking scenes for each woman there is also some empowering moments as they find the strength to stand up to those who harmed them.

I had seen so much advertising and hype about this book that I just had to read it: I can happily say that I was not disappointed. Beautifully written with captivating characters, I did not mind whose story I was reading as long as I could keep going!

As the blurb states, the voice has multiple storylines and three distinct voices from very different time periods. I was surprised to read how the gap between the three different characters narrowed. Each female had to battle, in her own way, against male oppression and find a voice of their own. I was transfixed as the links between them was carefully revealed. I think Kate's story was most heartbreaking for me - possibly because it was set in a modern timeline and it was easy to understand how she found herself in such terrible circumstances. The horrors of her childhood took a very long time to abate.

Violet's childhood experiences, while completely different, seemed to have similar outcomes and both women had to trust their own inner voices to take power and control of their own destinies.

A fascinating portrayal of an inherited form of witchcraft! Don't miss this fabulous read!

Weyward is the story of three woman, in three different timelines. Kate, Violet and Altha are all victims and are all related by blood. Altha is on trial for witchcraft in the seventeenth century, having been accused of provoking cattle to attack a local farmer. Violet is the eccentric daughter of a landowner who is seen to have brought shame onto her family in the early part of the twentieth century and Kate is her great-niece who has inherited her run-down cottage in the present day. Kate escapes to the cottage in an attempt to get away from her controlling partner and starts uncovering some of her family’s mysterious past. The three stories have their parallels in terms of misogyny and abuse and the empowerment of women to overcome adversity. Intriguing and highly compelling.

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

I fell in love with this book. It's told in three strands, each covering a different generation of the Weyward family, the women of which are gifted with a strange ability to commune with nature and heal sickness. It's a powerful and thoughtful exploration of feminine power, self-belief and recovery from trauma, and the descriptions are masterful. The imagery of the old country house entirely covered with metallic insect wings has stayed with me since reading. A gloriously witchy celebration of womanhood and empowerment.

I love a witchy historical fiction, and this was everything I was hoping for. We follow three women across three different timelines: Altha in 1619, Violet in 1942, and Kate in 2019. I absolutely adored all three of these women, and I loved how the more we got to know of each of their stories, the more connections we uncovered between the three women!

All three of these women’s lives were heartbreaking to read about. I’d suggest looking up trigger warnings for this book as it was very emotional and upsetting in several places, and there was a particularly graphic miscarriage scene that was very difficult to read! Despite the tough topics, they were written about in such a beautiful way and very sensitive to the issues at hand. Nothing was gratuitous, and merely gave us a small insight into what life was actually like for women in these times.

I loved Violet’s relationship with her brother Graham. They had such a beautiful and unbreakable sibling bond and the things they went through together and supported each other through were so powerful to read about.

The pacing of the book was really great - we really got to know all three of these women in such depth, but there was also plenty of tense and exhilarating plot points and short chapters to make it a very bingeable read!

I didn’t really know what I expected when I first started Wetward but what a powerful book. I really enjoyed the connections between Altha, Violet and Jate. It really touches on some dark topics such as domestic abuse and rape which was very tricky to read in some places. The author did a fantastic job splitting the stories between 3 characters with 3 timelines it can’t have been easy. I also loved the witchy/ magical element throughout the book too.

Emilia Hart's debut 'Weyward' is the intricately woven story of three generations of women: Altha is on trial for witchcraft in the 1600s; Violet is struggling to overcome her controlling father's power at the height of WWII; and our present day heroine is Kate, on the run from an abusive boyfriend and hiding out in the cottage her mysterious aunt bequeathed to her.
As these three stories take turns to unfold, we witness these women grow and discover their own unique power in the most beautiful blossoming I've ever read!
So let me tell you some of the endless number of things I loved about this book that enabled me to devour it in less than two days! First of all, each and every character was literary perfection - even the "villains"! Our three protagonists, the Weyward women, were each believable and their struggles were so relatable, even Altha's imprisonment for her witchy ways in the 1600s. Normally, when a book is written from various perspectives, I tend to lean towards a favourite but I genuinely couldn't choose one of these women over another, and I was flipping pages voraciously each time a new chapter started to continue each one of their stories.
This brings me to another aspect of this stunning story I adored: the perfectly paced unravelling of the mystery of the Weyward family. The book spans 400 years and whilst many webs were tangled throughout, Hart ensured they were woven expertly together into a perfect, yet not predictable, ending.
Finally, I think what I loved most about this delightful debut was its message to women worldwide: we are powerful. We are passionate and honest with so much inner beauty and such closeness with Mother Nature. I've never felt a book speak so strongly to me about these ideas before, but Emilia Hart really hit me where I needed to be hit right now, and I'm thrilled I had the chance to read her work. Hopefully, this will be the first of many Emilia Hart experiences we are gifted!
All in all, a bewitching tale of female empowerment to remind you just how strong women truly are.

Weyward by Emilia Hart

What a fantastic debut. This book was such a thrill. To see three different perspectives from Altha, Violet & Kate was challenging at times.
The constant POV changes were hard to keep up with but essentially having three story that interconnect. It highlights the oppression of women through the three time periods and highlights the power that had with in.
Once you've gotten your head around the POV the book was gripping and fast pace.
I felt all the emotions from each one of the Weyward women and it highlighted the author superb writing.
A fantastic debut novel which kept you hooked with suspense with a hint of witchiness thriller.
Definitely recommend it to everyone who loves a perfect combination of medical realism, discovery and a hint of fantasy.
Thank you Netgalley & Harper Collin for the eARC.

I enjoyed Weyward a fair bit, its a triple timeline of three women (OK - witches) coming into their power in various ways. But it is a book that is a little trapped by its structure, The first story is about Altha who in 1619 is a medicine woman, daughter of medicine women and is on trial for murder and witchcraft (both of which are kind of fair cops though extenuating circumstances exist). The second tale - and the one that is the meat and potatoes of this I think, is a Gothic story of Violet in WWII Britain, enamoured of nature, slowly discovering her birthright under a patriarchal and fearful household (a father who regrets his own dalliance with his wyrd wife). The third story is modern, Kate, trying to escape a partner's coercive control and her own youthful trauma. All of the tales conform to certain genre tropes (only the first one manages to escape some of the more obvious plot twists). And they are all told, chapter by chapter, in the round.

The problem with any book with a structure like this is maintaining momentum between the three tales. You get into one story and then have to wait two chapters to return to it. That makes it much more suitable for a binge read, but Hart doesn't always manage to maintain enough energy to jump from tale to tale. They do resonate with each of course, though the fact that Violet's story is about a child again means things don't always mirror as much as they might. Hart clearly feels more confident with the gothic and the modern, the 17th Century chapters are shorter and it feels like that story exists as more of a sketch. In the same way the modern one, whilst delved into in some depth, is one of coercive control and therefore will by its very nature have a quite passive and almost unreliable narrator.

Weyward is a good read and has a good central idea at the heart of it. It defines the women's power (which is real) against the various strands of patriarchal abuse and makes its point forcefully. But not all of the stories in it are created equally, and I did at one point skip chapters to maintain the thread of Violet's story. Once that braid was broken, and I was confident that there would be little tying the three together narratively I mopped up Altha's story, and then Kate's. So I guess the fact that I didn't follow the book's actual structure shows a slight weakness in the project.

I’d already heard about Emilia & her novel, from a friend who had met her through her job, so I was delighted when I was given the opportunity to review the book.

In fact it turned into a 'I stayed up late(very) to finish it' read!

To begin with I was a little concerned that the mechanism of using three different characters Altha, Violet & Kate to tell three different stories on three timelines wouldn’t work & would feel too formulaic, but I needn’t have worried as the author seamlessly wove the threads together.

With her legal background, I can only assume that the author’s research was thorough, it certainly felt authentic & I was caught up in the women’s stories. I felt that Violet’s language in the early chapters signposted a little too much her ‘era’ but didn’t notice it later on, instead I was caught up in the gorgeous, evocative descriptions of nature.

This is a novel about strong women who are survivors- what better metaphor than for the writer herself, who has fought through significant health issues to produce a first novel that is so enjoyable.

A stunningly beautiful debut.

Weyward explores female connection, the natural world and the inevitable injustices of the Patriarchy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the eArc

You had me at witches - love a "realistic" witchy story!

We span three women's lifetimes - all related and similar stories, but each makes their own tough choices and all the while having a relationship with nature; animals and insects included.

I really enjoyed this story and would reccomeded it to anyone who loves a good strong female character with a bit of magic thrown in!

I raced through this and enjoyed it, by and large. The character of Kate was my least favourite, poor old Violet was treated appallingly. I thought the very end was a bit unlikely, given how hard women who survive DV have to struggle to get the police to believe them, but as I say, for all that I enjoyed the book.

Written from the perspective of three women family members, each from a different point in time (1619, 1942 & 2019), connected by secrets and heritage.

I enjoyed that the characters stories intertwined and mirrored each other. It was interesting to see how differently hard topics such as rape, miscarriage/abortion and domestic abuse was handled throughout each time period, and it was heartbreaking to read at times. With Violet only being 16, so young, so naive, so innocent, it just hurt my heart that she didn't have the support of her father. I was disgusted with both him and the doctor (Frederick goes without saying), especially what they did to Violet's mother.

It was an interesting read but I found the story quite slow for the majority of the book, until around the 70% mark then it quickened up the pace. It was a little hard to follow at times in regards to each POV and how it is written; Altha is written in first person, Violet is written in third person, and Kate is written in third person but very much present tense, which I found unsettling for some reason. I found Kate the hardest to connect with despite her story being set in present day. Altha's story was the most intriguing, and Violet . . . my heart just went out to her and I found myself wanting to learn more about her life and her travels.